View report page

180
drained surface, there is practically no nuisance in storage or
removal. But people less favourably circumstanced use the litter
day after day, until it becomes fairly rotten before being
deposited in the ' dung-pit '; and then, naturally, the nuisance
is great—in the pit itself, in the act of collection, and in
conveyance through tlie streets—greatest also in hot sveather
(when, moreover, it is difficult often to get it removed),and in proportion
to the time of detention. Of late years, peat moss has
come into use as litter (sawdust, also, to some extent), and in the
act of collection, this is extremely offensive from disengagement
of ammonia. There is, however, little nuisance while the moss
is undisturbed, or in conveyance through the streets.
" House Refuse. —The storage, collection, and removal of
house refuse is an undoubted cause of serious nuisance, which can
be prevented only by a system of storage in impermeable covered
receptacles, and frequent if not daily removal in properly constructed
vehicles.* This duty should, in my opinion, be
undertaken everywhere, as in Kensington, by the Sanitary
Authority itself.
'' Your Vestry have ' taken steps for preventing nuisance'
from the storage of offensive substances by instructing the
Sanitary Inspectors to visit regularly the premises where
' offensire trades ' are carried on ; using the word ' offensive'
not merely in the statutory sense of the Slaughter Houses Act,
but in regard to all businesses the conduct of which gives rise to
the production of refuse substances that may become offensive.
In this way much has been done, and is being done, but at the
cost of considerable time that might well be spent in other
work. Much of the nuisance, as already intimated, in regard to
offensive substances of animal origin, occurs at the time of
collection and in conveyance through the streets; with which,
* It may be mentioned that the Vestry have lately requested the
Metropolitan Board of Works to " take steps to procure an amendment of the
law whereby it is obligatory that an ash-pit or dust-bin be provided to every
house, and an enactment that dust-bins be abolished and movable receptacles
substituted."—(Vide Section on "House Refuse.")